Blog #6

"When It Changed" is a rather confusing story. Based on what I think is going on, I see quite a few parallels to The Left Hand of Darkness, most notably in how there is only one gender. I first got this idea when the narrator talks about her children with Katy, one of which is Katy's and two of which are her own. I think she is implying that one was born by Katy and the other two she gave birth to herself. Also similar to The Left Hand of Darkness is how the people are human-like people who are paid a visit from a larger, more "normal" human figure from a distant planet. A difference with the world of Gethen is how the characters actually have genders, but they are all females (I think). The end of the story tells of how all the men had died. I am getting a sense that unlike The Left Hand of Darkness, this is definitely a feminist story. The male visitor seems to be antagonized in the story, especially with his chuckles at the women's responses to his questions.

Blog #5

In this last blog I would like to discuss the book as a whole and talk about my reaction to the story. Today in class we discussed various ways that society differentiates people based on things such as gender, age, religion, appearance, etc. As we went over the various means, particularly gender, I realized that there were quite a few categories for classifying people. I also considered how Le Guin tried to remove the problem of gender in our society in her creation of Gethenians. I then realized that even with gender gone, the people in a society still categorize people and stereotype each other. For example, the Gethenians differentiate between those child-bearing and those not child bearing, those in kemmer and those in somer, as well as "normal" androgynous people and "perverted" permanently-gendered people. I deduced that another of Le Guin's themes in the book was how human nature (i.e. the tendency to categorize and stereotype other people) will always be prevalent.

Blog #4

I would like to discuss different thoughts on the two main (or what I would consider to be the main) characters of the story, Genly and Estraven. At the beginning of the book, I had the idea that Genly was a physically weak person, even going so far as scrawny and skinny. He seemed to be the kind of person who was more mentally strong and intelligent. As the story progressed, I got the same impression of Genly as my initial one. He is a smart diplomat but does not quite understand the Gethenian culture, which is what I attribute to his shortcomings as envoy. I considered Estraven to be a good person at heart, despite his first apperance as a cold, emotionless person. Even though many people thought he would be Genly's enemy, I saw him as a misunderstood character who would actually be helping Genly throughout the book. Some think that he has underwent a character growth/development because he helped Genly escape from prison. However, I believe it was not Estraven who changed but rather the readers' perceptions of him that changed. I see him helping Genly to succeed by the end of the book.

Blog #3

When I started reading the book, I had the assumption that the nations described in the story would be examples of utopias, ideal systems that Le Guin believed our country should follow. For example, the idea of a gender-free species of humans seemed to directly address the problems our society faces with sexism. The use of male pronouns seems to support this. However, as we delve deeper into the book, I am starting to change my thoughts. I have started to think that the nations of Gethen are actually symbols for our current world and note the problems with our world. Karhide, with a monarchy under King Argaven, seems to be a dictatorship. Tibe's speakings over the radio reminds me of propaganda used to brainwash the populace in a fascist state. Orgoreyn seems to be a communist nation, and considering the early Cold War era that the book was written in, this does not seem too implausible.

Blog #2

After reading this far into the book, I tried to consider the story from a Karhidian perspective. To be more specific, I considered the idea of Gethenians as a symbol for us earthlings. What would we do if an odd-looking creature suddenly landed on our planet in a strange capsule that he claimed to be a spaceship? How would we react to his claims that he is from an alien planet, comes in peace, and wishes to recruit our planet to join a massive interplanetary union? Like Karhide, we would be suspicious of the envoy and conduct studies of his spacecraft and his anatomy. We would probably be scared of him initially, not knowing his capabilities. We may consider the ansible communicator a dangerous device; perhaps with a click of a button our beloved earth would be no more.

I enjoyed reading chapter 7 because it helped me to understand the Gethenians better. It also helped to answer my question in the previous blog. I asked why everyone was referred to as males when there was no gender. It turns ou the simplest answer was the best, that it was simply the most convenient. The male pronoun is often used as the default pronoun, even in our society.

Blog #1

For this first blog, I would like to discuss an issue that is always on my mind as I read the book. Even though the Karhiders do not have a specific gender, the author still refers to the people as "males". Why do you think this is so? For example, the KINGdom of Karhide has a KING, a MALE ruler. BROTHERS go into kemmer. Le Guin uses male pronouns to refer to the people of Karhide. Personally, I don't think it is simply out of convenience. The author made up countless other words, why not make up another word to refer to the gender neutral citizens of Karhide? Why not use the word "monarch" or "ruler" rather than "king", or simply create another word to serve this purpose? Perhaps she is trying to tell us something? Let me know what you think.